THE middle stump took a battering as Warwickshire’s seamers showed no sign of easing up on the opening day of the last championship game of the season at Trent Bridge.

THE middle stump took a battering as Warwickshire’s seamers showed no sign of easing up on the opening day of the last championship game of the season at Trent Bridge.

Title safely banked and a cup final looming on Saturday, the Bears bowlers could have eased down a gear for a match that, in league table terms, does not matter.

But this Warwickshire attack is not built that way.

The Bears want this game to be the bridge between two trophies and are aware of the dangers of losing momentum crossing it.

Much better to head for Lord’s fuelled by another win so, after Jim Troughton won the toss and took the field, Warwickshire bowled out heavily-depleted Notts for 155 in under 50 overs.

Four middle stumps were struck as Keith Barker, Chris Wright, Chris Woakes and Rikki Clarke shared nine wickets. Never mind the quality, it was collective bowling of a hunger which suggests the 2012 title could be only the start for this squad.

Warwickshire’s batsmen did not match the bowlers’ assiduousness as the Bears replied with 139 for six by the close. Ian Bell is not playing (he will arrive in Nottingham tomorrow for some white-ball practice before the final) and only Darren Maddy (41, 60 balls) knuckled down for long.

It was carefree stuff. The prospect of one or even two days clear before the final is, after all, not an unappealing one.

Few better seam trios have represented the Bears together than, Barker, Woakes and Wright and, in the morming, they devoured some end-of-term batting by opposition stripped of four of its first-choice top six by international duty.

Woakes took three balls to remove Sam Kelsall’s middle-stump and added the wicket of Rikki Wessels in a superb opening spell which made you wonder how destructive the Bears’ attack would have been with him available all season.

Barker removed Neil Edwards and then Steven Mullaney via Varun Chopra’s 26th slip catch of the campaign before Wright delivered the day’s champagne moment. Dismissals don’t come any more spectacular than Chris Read’s, middle stump sent halfway back to Richard Johnson by a ball of chilling pace.

James Taylor stuck around for 81 minutes for 17 but fell to Clarke before Jeetan Patel winkled out Graeme White. Ben Phillips lost his middle-stump to a Clarke no ball but Wright torpedoed the tail with a burst of three for four in 24 balls.

After Warwickshire, batting with some abandon, hit 45 for three in reply, pitch inspector Peter Walker popped in to announce: “The pitch is perfect. Can’t speak for the batting!”

Maddy played well before extravagantly lifting his bat out of the way of a ball that knocked out his off-pole. Richard Johnson soon lost a stump too.

It was the sort of day that makes stumps think everyone is out to get them.

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THERE is no more beautiful place in world cricket than New Road, Worcester, on a lovely sunny day and yesterday it provided the perfect setting for a day which Warwickshire’s coaches, players and supporters will long remember.